THE EFFECT OF COD LIVER OIL INTAKE ON THE STIMULATION OF BLOOD CELLS

Abstract

In an in vitro model, stimulation of blood cells with a low concentration of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) revealed differences between women and men that possibly could be an explanation to why young women have less coronary heart disease than men (see abstract Hansen et al. “A model to--”).This model was also used to study the effect of intake of cod liver oil (CLO). 40 students (20 men and 20 women) were tested followed by an intake of 25 ml CLO daily for 2 months by 20 of the students.Heparinized blood samples were incubated with 2 ng LPS/ ml for 2 hours followed by isolation of plasma for thromboxane B2 and 6-keto-PG 1α quantitation.After the first 2 months period of CLO drinking we have the following results:The two months of CLO intake had no significant effect pn the thromboplastin induced synthesis in monocytes. In addition platelet aggregation was tested in a whole blood aggregometer using ADP addition to heparinized blood or collagen induced platelet aggregation in citrated whole blood. ADP aggregation was reduced from 75.9 ± 16.8% to 55.4 ± 19% in the CLO group of women, whereas the reduction in the CLO group of men was 70.1 ± 17.1% to 60.9±18.6%. Similar result were found with collagen aggregation (57% to 33% for women and 48% to 30% for men).It is concluded that CLO intake reduces TxA2 production and plateletaggregation without having reduced effect on PGI2 production in whole blood.